Page 46 of The Captain's Bounty
The Soldri nodded back at him, mimicking a gesture that clearly was not natural to him. “Release your bounty to me and we shall call one another allies against future troubles.”
Bruwes pretended to think that over. He’d better be pretending, anyway. Although even Lissa could see the advantage of such a truce. To the Soldri, piracy was an honorable profession. There was no crime in taking something from someone who could not hold onto it. Likewise, one who adhered to their code of honor was welcome in their society, as much as any true Soldri. He wasn’t just offering to maybe do business down the road, but offering the protection of a Fleet and haven on their home world, where even Corporate did not dare to go with impunity.
This might be worth even more than a jump coil.
Her fingers began to smoke, something that should have hurt like hell, but like with her wrists, when the power unfurled like this, it had a way of compartmentalizing… everything.
“There are more than enough bounties in this quadrant for both of us,” Bruwes decided, sounding bored. “This one is taken. Find another.”
A corner of the Soldri’s mouth curled. “I hear your words, my friend, but I see your ship. You cannot run. Your shields are no match for our plasma cannons and your, ah, charming hardlight blasters cannot penetrate our refractor field to even touch our shields.
“They’re helixblasters, actually,” Bruwes remarked. “The Supernova 6 model. But go on.”
The Soldri did not react in any way that could be seen through his thick veils and other wrappings, but even his dark goggles seemed a little concerned by that.
“Oh, are you done? Well, as much as I hate to correct a man I respect so, so much?—”
Cory leaned over and spat.
“—I should point out that we’ve also got a subspace scythe and a full payload of Void torpedoes, plus whatever’s in the armory,” Bruwes said, even less amused than before. “And this is where you tell me you’ve got, I don’t know, an anti-star disintegrator ray. I don’t care. What you’ve got doesn’t matter. You might as well flush that shit into space for all you’re going to use it on me. If you want my cargo, you’re going to have to come and get it, and, my friend, I will shoot you when you do. Respectfully. “
The Soldri nodded. “So, you’ve decided this needs to get ugly?”
“Looking at you makes it ugly enough,” Cory muttered, not quite under her breath.
The Soldri did not so much as glance at her. “I find myself genuinely disappointed. You seem an honorable man. I give you a second chance to see the sense of compromise. My contact tells me you are in need of a jump coil.”
Not a muscle on Bruwes’s body twitched, but his gaze turned very slightly murderous. “I don’t know who would have told you that?—”
“It wasn’t me, I swear,” Cory said swiftly.
“Might have been me,” admitted Vullum. “Those sisters’ friend? Was real chatty.”
“And you talked about jump coils?” Cory asked, looking pained.
“Hey, she said she was working her way through engineering school. Ah, the things she could do with a spanner…”
“—but I’ve got that taken care of,” Bruwes continued. “And my cargo’s worth three times the cost of a jump coil. Bad enough you try to steal my prize instead of getting your own, but that offer is an insult.”
The Soldri nodded a final time, deeply, almost a bow. “My apologies for the offense I have given. So. In my last breath as your friend, I say we will dock with you. Send the girl peaceably and we will take her and release your ship.”
Dear God, she’d been reduced to a chauvinistic overly-used non-descriptor like out of a bad 21st century action movie. No one seemed to notice the soft ping as first one cufflink came apart under the steady pressure and heat of her hands, then the other. She–the alien being–caught the cuffs silently before the metal dropped to the grated floor.
“Well, that’s not happening, so what’s option number two?”
“Are we enemies, then? Pity. Then we will pierce your hull. You will either die or be forced to come to me, if you wish to continue breathing, and you will all become our bounty.”
Bruwes lost that bored look in a heartbeat. “Your bounty? You’re not seriously going to fly us all the way back to Me’Kava for a lousy?—”“
The Soldri raised a tablet into the screen’s view and began to read. “Wanted: stolen vessel, The Raider, 2000 chits. Wanted: Captain Bruwes, son of Mayzon, 1000 chits. Ship’s doctor Demin, son of Ryant, 1000 chits. Science officer Vullum, son of Becktel, 1000 chits–”
“They know my father?” the doctor asked in surprise. “I don’t even know my father.”
“We’ve got dossiers onus?” Vullum asked, even more surprised.
“They’ve got bounties on us,” Bruwes corrected.
“Well, shit, what did we ever do?” Cory asked indignantly, only to deflate under the collective stare of the others. “Except for all the… everything.”
